1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an automatic sewing apparatus for sewing a flap on a workpiece.
2. Background Art
An automatic sewing apparatus for sewing a flap on a workpiece is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5 272 994, in which a workpiece holder is provided, which comprises a pocket clamping plate and a flap clamping plate. Guide means are provided for the transport of the workpiece holder during the individual sewing jobs. By a single seam in vicinity to the pocket, the flap is sewn on the workpiece, for instance a shirt panel. To this end, after the pocket has been sewn on, the flap is moved towards the pocket for the flap seam to have the collect position relative to the pocket. This known automatic sewing apparatus only can sew on a flap that does not possess a rough, i.e. open, material edge.
The PFAFF information leaflet "PFAFF Special Sevice 310-01 No. 296-12-15815" teaches the application of a flap to a shirt forepart. In this case, the flap is sewn on the shirt panel by a first flap seam. Then the flap is folded down over the first flap seam, after which a second flap seam is sewn through the doubled flap. Also in this case, the edge of the flap lies open under the flap. If this edge is rough, i.e. not finished, then the flap will tend to fray during washing. Moreover, this way of sewing on a flap requires some manual skill of the sewer and is costly, because it is time consuming to sew on a flap in the correct position and without it being warped.
An apparatus for sewing a flap on a shirt forepart is known from U.S. Pat. No. No. 5 584 258, by which a flap can be sewn on fundamentally in the same way as in the publication mentioned first.